Since John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1961, job growth under Democratic presidents has outnumbered that under Republicans by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, according to a Bloomberg Government analysis. During that period, non-government payrolls grew by almost 42 million jobs under Democratic presidents, compared to 24 million when a Republican party member was in power.

The pattern seems to be holding true under President Obama. During the first three years and two months of his presidency, the country hasn't lost nearly as many jobs as during that same first period of his predecessor, according to an analysis from left-leaning and Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman. In April, the total number of private sector jobs finally surpassed that which existed when Obama took office in January 2009, according to the Bloomberg Government report.